Where Do You Find the Meanings of Unfamiliar Words?

From the print edition of a dictionary to its online version, to a Google search to asking your favorite wordsmith or using context to make a reasonable guess, it’s clear that there are many ways to learn the meaning of a new word.

In the hours after Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was silenced by her Republican colleagues for “impugning” a fellow senator by reading aloud a letter Coretta Scott King had written that was critical of Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama (later confirmed as attorney general), thousands of Americans did what they always do: They tapped away at their phones.

But they weren’t checking text messages or liking a photo on Facebook. They were thumbing through online dictionaries, looking for a definition of “impugn.” On Wednesday morning, the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster posted on its website that searches on the word had surged.

“It’s been at the top for almost 12 hours now,” said Peter Sokolowski, the company’s editor at large.

As he wrote on the Merriam-Webster website: “Impugn means ‘to oppose or attack as false or lacking integrity’ or ‘to criticize (a person’s character, intentions, etc.) by suggesting that someone is not honest and should not be trusted.’ It comes from the Latin word pugnare meaning ‘to fight,’ which is also the root of pugnacious and pugilism.”

A tweet posted to the dictionary’s feed linking to this definition quickly racked up several hundred retweets.

At a time when many are questioning the definition of common words they thought they understood, after years of the English language being degraded by text messages and hashtags, dictionaries have made a surprising comeback in the United States.

On dictionary apps and websites, “lookups” (which, according to Merriam-Webster, is one word) of words or phrases related to news events have precipitously increased. Bibliophiles are becoming social media stars. Sales of print dictionaries remain brisk and are a profit center for some publishers.

“Dictionaries are not regarded as sexy or interesting, but what dictionaries are known for is telling the truth,” said Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer and past president of the American Dialect Society. “Right now there are a lot of questions about what is true. We want clear statements about what things are, and dictionaries provide that.”

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— Where do you go to find the meanings of words? Has this changed over time?

— Were you one of the people looking up “impugn” after Senator Elizabeth Warren was accused of doing so? Have there been other times when a particular word used in the worlds of media or entertainment led you to look it up? What was the word?

— How often do you look up the meanings of unfamiliar words?

— How do you interpret Jesse Sheidlower’s idea that people are drawn to dictionaries in search of “truth” and “clear statements” because of the current climate in which “there are a lot of questions about what is true”? Do you agree?

— What advice do you have for young students who are frequently exposed to unfamiliar words? How can they get over any resistance they might have about looking up those words?

— What is the last word you looked up the meaning of? What does the word mean? Where did you first see it?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.